Edge-based hooking gestures for invoking user interfaces

ABSTRACT

Presented herein are techniques for invoking user interfaces in graphical computing environments involving “hooking” gestures applicable to an edge of a display. These gestures involve positioning a pointer near an edge of the display depicting the environment, and then moving the cursor to a second location that is distanced from but near the first location (e.g., moving the pointer into a corner of the display, and then toward the center of the display, or to a midpoint of an adjacent edge of the display), resulting in the presentation of the user interface under the pointer at the second location. Variations include presenting a preview of the user interface (e.g., a subset of a user interface menu) at the second location while the pointer is in the first location, and refraining from presenting the user interface upon failing to complete the gesture or receiving extraneous input before completing the gesture.

BACKGROUND

Within the field of computing, many scenarios involve the presentationof user interfaces within a graphical computing environment, such aswindows, icons, menu bars, toolbars, and widgets, as well as abackground region, such as a desktop presented as a backdrop for thegraphical computing environment. In particular, such user interfaces maypresent various types of visual controls for interacting with thegraphical computing environment, such as adjustable properties of theenvironment, adjustable settings of respective applications, andproperties of regions associated with the applications (e.g., opening,closing, and repositioning windows for respective applications). A usermay manipulate a pointing device (e.g., a mouse, trackball, touchpad,drawing tablet, stylus, or touchscreen device) to manipulate a pointerwithin the graphical environment in order to interact with the userinterfaces presented therein.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key factors oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Although the presentation of visual controls within the graphicalcomputing environment may enable various operations for respectiveapplications or the environment, such presentation may consume valuablespace on the display of the device. In some scenarios, such consumptionmay be regarded as an inefficient use of display space that diminishesthe amount of display space usable by the application. For example,settings may be accessible through interaction with a visual controlsuch as a button or menu, but such settings may be infrequently orrarely accessed by the user, and it may not be desirable to present suchvisual controls in a continuous manner that reduces the size of thedisplay used to present other aspects of the graphical computingenvironment, such as the output of the applications. Moreover, suchvisual controls are often presented in a large non-interactive displayelement, such as a menu bar displayed along the entire top width of theregion where only a small portion of the menu bar is used to display asmall set of options. Therefore, it may be desirable to reduce theamount of “chrome” (e.g., attached visual controls and embedding visualelements) presented within the graphical computing environment in orderto maximize the area of display space that is available for other uses.However, it is still desirable to enable the user to access theoperations for which the visual elements may have been presented.

Presented herein are techniques for enabling users to invoke apresentation of a user interface within a graphical computingenvironment through the detection of gestures performed with thepointer. Such techniques may particularly useful when implemented in a“chromeless” manner, e.g., where the graphical computing environmentrefrains from indicating the availability of the user interface beforethe start of the performance of the gesture. These techniques involvedetecting a positioning of the pointer at a first location near an edgeof the display, followed by a movement of the pointer toward a secondlocation that is located near, but at a distance from, the firstlocation (e.g., the first location comprising a corner of the displayadjoining two edges, and the second location comprising a midpoint ofone of the edges). This gesture may invoke a presentation of a userinterface region of the user interface, such that the user interfaceregion that is positioned near the first location, but that does notinclude the first location, such that the user interface does notocclude other visual controls that may be positioned at the firstlocation (e.g., other visual controls positioned in the corner of thedisplay). Additionally, upon detecting a “hovering” of the pointer atthe first location, the device may present a preview of the userinterface at the second location, thus encouraging the user to move thepointer toward the second location where the full user interface ispresented.

The configuration of the device to detect such gestures as requests toinvoke the user interface may present several advantages. As a firstexample, the edges of a display, and even more so the corners of thedisplay, are often easily accessible to a user (according to someconsequences of Fitts' Law), and a user may rapidly invoke suchgestures, and possibly without regard to the current position of thepointer and even without looking at the display. As a second example,such gestures are not currently associated with any known functionality,and users may be easily and intuitively trained to utilize such gesturesto invoke the user interface. As a third example, such gestures may bedetectable with high accuracy, a low degree of ambiguity, and acomparatively simple analytic process (as contrasted with gestures thatinvolve complex shape analysis, such as the drawing of symbols such asletters). These and other advantages may be achievable through theimplementation of the techniques presented herein.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the followingdescription and annexed drawings set forth certain illustrative aspectsand implementations. These are indicative of but a few of the variousways in which one or more aspects may be employed. Other aspects,advantages, and novel features of the disclosure will become apparentfrom the following detailed description when considered in conjunctionwith the annexed drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring a graphicalcomputing environment including visual controls for invoking userinterfaces.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring thedetection of a gesture within a graphical computing environment toinvoke a user interface in accordance with the techniques presentedherein.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of presenting auser interface within a graphical computing environment.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an exemplary computer-readable mediumcomprising processor-executable instructions configured to embody one ormore of the provisions set forth herein.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring aninvocation of a user interface within a graphical computing environmentpresented on a plurality of displays.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary computing environment wherein one ormore of the provisions set forth herein may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A. Introduction

The claimed subject matter is now described with reference to thedrawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to likeelements throughout. In the following description, for purposes ofexplanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. It may beevident, however, that the claimed subject matter may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitatedescribing the claimed subject matter.

Within the field of computing, many scenarios involve a graphicalcomputing environment comprising various user interfaces, such aswindows, menu bars, toolbars, notification dialogs, icons representingapplications or documents, and widgets embedded in a desktop. Suchgraphical computing environments may be generated on a device, e.g., byfirst rendering a background color or background image; by rendering oneor more user interfaces for each application executing on the device;and by presenting the rendering on a display component of the device,such as a monitor. Some user interfaces may be associated with anapplication executing on the device, and may be configured to presentvisual output from the application and/or convey input through the userinterface to the application. Such applications may include userapplications, renderings of media objects, configuration dialogs, games,operating system applications (e.g., a file explorer), and graphicalinterfaces for background service (e.g., a notification icon stored in anotification icon area).

A user may be permitted to interact with the user interfaces presentedin the graphical computing environment. As one such example, the devicemay comprise a pointing device, such as a mouse, a trackball, atrackpad, a drawing tablet, a touchscreen, a stylus, a targeting elementsuch as an infrared emitter, and/or a camera configured to detect amanual pointing gesture of a user at the display component. Thesepointing devices may be used to control a pointer presented on thedisplay (e.g., represented by a cursor such as an arrow), and the usermay utilize the pointer to select, activate, and interact with varioususer interfaces; e.g., the user may slide a mouse on a flat surface toachieve corresponding movement of the pointer, may position the pointerover a user interface of interest, and may click a button on the mouseto indicate a selection of the user interface. The device may beconfigured to support many such operations through the pointing device(e.g., clicking with one or more particular buttons, double-clicking,dragging an item such as an icon, or creating a marquee or “lasso” toselect an area or items of interest). The device may also evaluate theinput of the pointing device to identify gestures performed with thepointer (e.g., a “shaking” of the cursor) and/or of the pointing device(e.g., a single- or multi-touch gesture performed on a touchpad that isto be processed in lieu of corresponding movements on the touchpad).Such manipulations may enable the execution of many types of activities,including selecting and/or unselecting items; invoking, switching to, orterminating particular applications; and zooming into or out of aportion of the graphical computing environment.

In addition to operations invoked solely through the input of thepointing device, pointer-based user interfaces are frequently used inconjunction with various types of visual controls embedded in the userinterface, such as depressable buttons, selectable radio buttons,checkboxes, sliders, lists, numeric up/down controls, menus and pickers.For example, a window of an application is often presented with a visualframe; a set of buttons at a top corner of the window for frequentlyinvoked window management functions, such as maximizing, restoring,minimizing, and closing an application; and a top menu bar providing aset of invokable operations exposed by the application. These controlsmay be applied by default to the window by the graphical computingenvironment, or may be specified by the application associated with thewindow, and may be positioned in an independent, floating, detachable,dockable, and/or attached manner with respect to the window. Somefamiliar examples involve techniques for achieving a repositioning of awindow on the display. Such repositioning may involve, e.g., alteringthe location of a window on the display; resizing the window; switchingthe window to a particular view mode (e.g., a maximized, fullscreen,windowed, or hidden view mode); and moving the window to a differentdisplay (e.g., from a first monitor to a second monitor connected to thesame device; from a first virtual display space to a second virtualdisplay space of the same device; or to a display component of adifferent device). Because windows are frequently repositioned inwindow-based graphical computing environments, such devices oftenprovide several ways to invoke the repositioning of a window. Forexample, the maximize, restore, and minimize buttons attached to awindow enable the repositioning of the window at predefined sizes andlocations; the graphical frame of a window enables a user to positionthe pointer over an edge of the window and drag to adjust the size ofthe window; and menu options in a standard application menu enabling themaximizing, restoring, and minimizing of the region. Additional inputoptions may be included to reposition the window without the use of avisual repositioning control; e.g., keyboard shortcuts may be providedto invoke the maximize, restore, and minimize commands, and a “throw”pointer gesture may be implemented to enable a user to “grab” a windowwith the pointer and rapidly move the pointer to a particular locationof the display in order to “throw” it into that location.

FIG. 1 presents an illustration of an exemplary scenario 100 featuring adevice 102 having a display 104 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD)monitor) whereupon is presented a graphical computing environment 106within which applications 108 may be executed, and may render outputthrough a window 110 of the graphical computing environment 106. Inorder to interact with the graphical computing environment 106, a user112 may manipulate a pointing device 114, such as a mouse, to control apointer 116 positioned at a location within the graphical computingenvironment 106. For example, the user 112 may position the pointer 116over a visual control 118 within the window 110, such as a buttonpositioned at the top-left corner of the window 110 providing access togeneral window-management functions, and a menu bar presenting menus ofapplication-specific operations. While the window 110 is activated(e.g., while the pointer 116 is positioned over the window 110, or whilethe window 110 is selected as an input focus), input received from theuser 112 may be directed to the application 108 associated with thewindow 110. For example, clicking on the button may result in thepresentation of a first user interface 120 (e.g., a pop-out menupresenting a selectable list of window management operations).Additional visual controls 118 may be presented by the graphicalcomputing environment 106, such as an application launcher that, uponactivation with the pointer 116, presents a second user interface 120comprising a list of invokable applications, and a settings button that,upon activation with the pointer 116, presents a third user interface120 comprising a list of operations applicable to the graphicalcomputing environment 106 (e.g., displaying settings within thegraphical computing environment 106, logging out of a user account, andshutting down the graphical computing environment 106). In this manner,visual elements 118 may be presented within the graphical computingenvironment 106 to enable access to various user interfaces 120associated with applications 108 and the graphical computing environment106.

However, the implementation of visual controls 118 for respectivewindows 110 may consume space within the graphical computing environment106. For example, in the exemplary scenario 100 of FIG. 1, a significantamount of the display space is consumed by visual controls 118 such asthe top menu bar, the application launcher button, the options button,and the visual controls 118 embedded in the window 110. Moreover, someof these elements are embedded in non-interactive visual elements inorder to provide visual alignment and/or consistency among windows 110;e.g., a menu bar may span the entire width of a window 110 but may beonly partially utilized by embedded visual controls 118, and theremainder may present non-interactive and unhelpful visual elementswithin the graphical computing environment 106. Moreover, thefunctionality provided by a visual control 118 may be redundant withother visual controls 118; may be invoked only occasionally or rarely,despite the ubiquitous presentation of the visual control 118; and maybe handled entirely by the logic of the application 108 (e.g., theapplication 108 may present an option within the window 110 to exit theapplication at an appropriate time, thereby rendering a “close” buttonirrelevant and confusing).

These and other considerations may encourage a reduction in the amountof redundant, infrequently invoked, and/or non-functional visualelements (“chrome”) within a graphical computing environment 106.However, users 112 may nevertheless wish to invoke the functionalityprovided by the omitted visual controls 118. Therefore, it may bedesirable to design the graphical computing environment 106 to providesuch functionality other than through the use of “chrome.” One suchtechnique is the implementation of “gestures,” whereby a particularmotion of the pointer 116 may be associated with a particularfunctionality, such as the “marquee” or “lasso” gesture whereby thedrawing of a rectangle enclosing a set of items in a list results in aselection of the enclosed items, or double-clicking a button on apointing device to activate an item indicated by the pointer 116.Moreover, it may be desirable to devise gestures that may bedistinctively entered by the user 112; that may be efficiently andaccurately distinguished by computational analysis from other gesturesand other forms of input); and that are intuitively associated with theinvoked functionality (e.g., a recognizable multi-touch gesture mayinvolve a spreading or pinching of two locations may be intuitivelyassociated, respectively, with a zoom-in operation or a zoom-outoperation). The configuration of the device 102 to recognize adistinctive set of gestures, each enabling access to frequently invokedfunctionality in an unambiguous manner, may enable a considerablereallocation of the display space of the graphical computing environment106 from “chrome” to the output of applications 108.

B. Presented Techniques

Presented herein are techniques for facilitating the invocation of auser interface 120 through gestures that are not presently associatedwith other functionality, that are readily distinguished from othergestures and forms of input, and that are intuitively associated withthe associated functionality of invoking a user interface 120. Inparticular, it may be desirable to devise a gesture that is associatedwith a location near an edge of a display 104 of the device 102, which,according to Fitts' Law, is readily accessible to users 112. However,due to this advantageous accessibility, many graphical computingenvironments 106 may position the user interface 120 near an edge of thedisplay 104, and/or may implement gestures or other forms of input withrespect to an edge. These alternate uses of the edge of a display 104may cause two undesirable consequences: first, the gesture may alreadybe associated with other forms of input that are associated with thesame edge; second, presenting the user interface 120 at the firstlocation where the gesture begins may result in an overlapping of othervisual elements that are also presented near the same edge. Moreover, itmay be further desirable to present the invoked user interface 120 nearthe edge only after the gesture is completed, because presenting theuser interface 120 near the first location before the gesture iscompleted may result in an overlapping of other visual elements near theedge even if the user 112 did not intend to invoke the user interface120.

For at least these reasons, it may be desirable to devise gestures thatconclude at a second location that is near but distanced from the firstlocation where the gesture is initiated, where the movement of thepointer 116 from the first location to the second location mayunambiguously identify a request to invoke the user interface 120. As anadditional option, while the invoked user interface 120 may be presentedonly after the gesture is completed, the graphical computing environment118 may present a preview of the user interface 120 at the secondlocation. This preview presentation may both suggest the availability ofthe user interface 120 to the user 112 when the gesture is commenced andmay prompt the user 112 with the movement to complete the gesture.Moreover, the presentation at the second location (near but distancedfrom the first location near the edge of the display 106) may avoidoverlapping visual elements presented at the first location,particularly before the intent of the user 112 to invoke the userinterface 120 is unambiguously established through the completion of thegesture.

FIG. 2 presents an illustration of an exemplary scenario (presented as asequence of time points) including the performance of an exemplarygesture devised to invoke a user interface 120. In this exemplaryscenario, at a first time point 200, within the graphical computingenvironment 106 presented on a display 104, a gesture may be devisedthat is associated with a particular edge 202 of the display 104 (e.g.,a corner adjoining a horizontal edge and a vertical edge of the display104). In particular, the gesture may be associated with a first location204 that is located near the edge 202 where the gesture is commenced(e.g., a small triangular area of the corner of the display 104), and asecond location 206 that is near but distanced from the first location204 and where the gesture is completed (e.g., a small square area near amidpoint of the vertical edge associated with the corner). At this firsttime point 200, the pointer 116 may be positioned at an arbitraryposition within the graphical computing environment 106, but at a secondtime point 208, the user 112 may move the pointer 116 to enter the areacomprising the first location 204, and the device 102 may enter a userinterface suggestion mode 210 (e.g., the detection of input initiatingbut not yet completing a gesture whereby a user interface 120 may beinvoked). At a third time point 212, as optional additional aspects ofthis exemplary gesture, the graphical computing environment 106 maydetect a hovering of the pointer 116 (for a hover duration 214) at thefirst location 204, and may therefore present a preview 216 of the userinterface 120 at the second location 206. The preview 216 may bothsuggest the availability of the user interface 120 to the user 112, andmay also indicate to the user 112 the second location 206 where thepointer 116 may be moved to complete the gesture. Moreover, the secondlocation 206 may be selected so that the preview 216, when displayed atthe second location 206, does not overlap visual elements at the firstlocation 204. At a fourth time point 218, a movement 220 of the pointer116 to the second location 206 may result in a completion of thegesture, result in, at a fifth time point 222, a presentation of theuser interface 120 along the vertical edge of the display 104 where thegesture has been performed. In this manner, the user interface 120 maybe conveniently invoked by an unambiguous gesture without reliance onchrome, and by suggesting the availability of the user interface 120 bypresenting a preview that does not occlude other visual elementspresented at the first location 204, in accordance with the techniquespresented herein.

C. Exemplary Embodiments

FIG. 3 presents a first exemplary embodiment of the techniques presentedherein, illustrated as an exemplary method 300 of presenting userinterfaces 120 within a graphical computing environment 106. Theexemplary method 300 may involve a device 102 having a processor, adisplay 104, and a pointing device 114 associated with a pointer 116presented within the graphical computing environment 106. The exemplarymethod 300 also involves a set of instructions stored in a memorycomponent of the device 102 (e.g., a memory circuit, a platter of a harddisk drive, a solid-state storage device, or a magnetic and/or opticaldisc) that, when executed on the processor of the device, causes thedevice to apply the techniques presented herein. Accordingly, theexemplary method 300 begins at 302 and involves executing 304 theinstructions on the processor of the device 102. More specifically, theinstructions are configured to, upon detecting a positioning of thepointer 116 at a first location 506 near an edge 202 of the display 104,enter 306 a user interface suggestion mode 210. The instructions arealso configured to, upon detecting, while in the user interfacesuggestion mode 210, a movement 220 of the pointer 116 to a secondlocation 206 that is near the first location 204 and that is distancedfrom the first location 204, present 308 the user interface 120 at thesecond location 206. Having achieved the presentation of the userinterface 120 according to the techniques presented herein, theexemplary method 300 ends at 310.

Still another embodiment involves a computer-readable medium comprisingprocessor-executable instructions configured to apply the techniquespresented herein. Such computer-readable media may include, e.g.,computer-readable storage media involving a tangible device, such as amemory semiconductor (e.g., a semiconductor utilizing static randomaccess memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/orsynchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) technologies), aplatter of a hard disk drive, a flash memory device, or a magnetic oroptical disc (such as a CD-R, DVD-R, or floppy disc), encoding a set ofcomputer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor of adevice, cause the device to implement the techniques presented herein.Such computer-readable media may also include (as a class oftechnologies that are distinct from computer-readable storage media)various types of communications media, such as a signal that may bepropagated through various physical phenomena (e.g., an electromagneticsignal, a sound wave signal, or an optical signal) and in various wiredscenarios (e.g., via an Ethernet or fiber optic cable) and/or wirelessscenarios (e.g., a wireless local area network (WLAN) such as WiFi, apersonal area network (PAN) such as Bluetooth, or a cellular or radionetwork), and which encodes a set of computer-readable instructionsthat, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device toimplement the techniques presented herein.

An exemplary computer-readable medium that may be devised in these waysis illustrated in FIG. 4, wherein the implementation 400 comprises acomputer-readable medium 402 (e.g., a CD-R, DVD-R, or a platter of ahard disk drive), on which is encoded computer-readable data 404. Thiscomputer-readable data 404 in turn comprises a set of computerinstructions 406 configured to operate according to the principles setforth herein. In one such embodiment, the processor-executableinstructions 406 may be configured to perform a method of presenting auser interface within a graphical computing environment, such as theexemplary method 300 of FIG. 3. Some embodiments of thiscomputer-readable medium may comprise a nontransitory computer-readablestorage medium (e.g., a hard disk drive, an optical disc, or a flashmemory device) that is configured to store processor-executableinstructions configured in this manner. Many such computer-readablemedia may be devised by those of ordinary skill in the art that areconfigured to operate in accordance with the techniques presentedherein.

D. Variations

The techniques discussed herein may be devised with variations in manyaspects, and some variations may present additional advantages and/orreduce disadvantages with respect to other variations of these and othertechniques. Moreover, some variations may be implemented in combination,and some combinations may feature additional advantages and/or reduceddisadvantages through synergistic cooperation. The variations may beincorporated in various embodiments (e.g., the exemplary method 300 ofFIG. 3) to confer individual and/or synergistic advantages upon suchembodiments.

D1. Scenarios

A first aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniquesrelates to the scenarios wherein such techniques may be utilized.

As a first variation of this first aspect, these techniques may beutilized with many types of devices 102, such as servers, workstations,laptop or palmtop computers, tablets, phones, personal data assistants,media players, game consoles, and appliances.

As a second variation of this first aspect, these techniques may beutilized with many types of displays 104, such as active- orpassive-matrix liquid crystal displays (LCD), organic or traditionallight-emitting diode (LED) displays, cathode-ray-tube (CRT) displays,and projectors. Such displays 104 may also exhibit various features,including various physical sizes, aspect ratios, resolutions, pixeldensities, adjustable properties, and three-dimensional imagesimulation. The device 102 may also have one or multiple displays 104arranged in various ways (e.g., an aggregate desktop presentedseamlessly across the displays 104, a set of distinct and isolateddisplay spaces presented on different displays 104, or a mirroreddesktop that is partially or wholly redundantly presented on severaldisplays 104). Additionally, in some variations, a first device 102 mayapply the techniques presented herein for windows 110 presented on adisplay 104 of a second device 104 (e.g., a terminal services clientpresenting on a display 104 the graphical computing environmentgenerated by a terminal server).

As a third variation of this first aspect, these techniques may beutilized with many types of pointing devices 114, such as a mouse,trackball, trackpad, pointing stick, joystick, or drawing tablet. Thepointing device 114 may also be incorporated in the display 104, such asa magnetic or capacitative touch-sensitive display capable of detectingtouch by a finger of a user 112 or by a stylus. Other pointing devices114 may include a camera, and may correlate movements of the pointer 116with movements of a user (e.g., applying image evaluation techniques todetect the body position and physical gestures of the user 112) or apointing device, such as an infrared emitter. Such pointing devices 114may also include various properties that may affect the pointer 116,such as sensitivity, acceleration, the inclusion of buttons and/orwheels, the detection of various axes of movement (possibly including athird dimensional axis and/or gyroscopic sensors detecting deviceattitude such as tilt), and sensitivity to the touch of the user, as ina touch-sensitive mouse. As a further variation, such pointing devices114 may generally correlate with the pointer 116 in various modes, suchas an absolute correlation (e.g., on a touch-sensitive display 104, thelocation touched by the user 112 is the location of the point 116; or ona touchpad, the size and dimensions of the touchpad may be scaled to thesize and dimensions of the display 104, such that touching a particularlocation on the touchpad positions the pointer 116 at the correspondingscaled position on the display 104) and a relative correlation (e.g.,input from a mouse or touchpad may be interpreted not as a location ofthe pointer 116 on the display 104, but as directional motion of thepointer 116 within the graphical computing environment 106).

As a fourth variation of this first aspect, these techniques may beutilized to invoke many types of user interfaces 120. As a first suchexample, the user interfaces 120 may be associated with the graphicalcomputing environment 104 and/or one or more applications 108. As asecond such example, the user interfaces 120 may include many types ofvisual elements 118, such as modal or modeless windows, interactive andnon-interactive dialogs, toolbars, menu bars, renderings of mediaobjects such as documents and images, icons, and widgets embedded in adesktop. Those of ordinary skill in the art may devise many scenarioswherein the techniques presented herein may be utilized.

D2. Gesture Variations

A second aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniquesrelates to variations in the gestures detectable by such techniques.

As a first variation of this second aspect, the gestures may beassociated with particular edges 202 of a display 104. As a first suchexample, the first location 204 may comprise a location near a corner ofthe display 104 adjoining two selected edges 202 of the display 104, andthe second location 206 may comprise a midpoint of a selected edge 202(or vice versa). As a second such example, the first location 204 maycomprise a location near an edge 202 of the display 104, and the secondlocation 206 may comprise a location between the first location 204 andthe center of the display 104.

As a second variation of this second aspect, the gesture may compriseadditional forms of input combined with the positioning of the pointer116 in the first location 204 and the movement 220 of the pointer 116 tothe second location 204. As a first such example, the gesture mayinvolve hovering the pointer 116 at the first location 204 and/or thesecond location 206. As a second such example, the gesture may involveactivating the pointer 116 at the first location 204 and/or the secondlocation 206 and/or therebetween, e.g., clicking a button of a mouse atthe first location 204 and/or the second location 206, or performing a“drag” operation from the first location 204 to the second location 206.As a third such example, the gesture may also involve other forms ofinput through other input devices, such as depressing a key on akeyboard while performing the gesture.

As a third variation of this second aspect, the graphical computingenvironment 106 may visually indicate the availability of the gesture invarious ways. As a first such example, the graphical computingenvironment 106 may present a visual indicator at the first location 204of the user interface 120 or the availability of the gesture, such as aninteractive or non-interactive target. Alternatively, the graphicalcomputing environment 106 may refrain from presenting visual indicators(e.g., a “chromeless” implementation of the gesture). As a second suchexample, between the initiation of the gesture at the first location 204and the completion of the gesture at the second location 206, thegraphical computing environment 106 may present a visual indication ofthe second location 206 in order to encourage the completion of thegesture, or may refrain from presenting any such visual indication inorder to promote the “chromelessness” of the graphical computingenvironment 106.

As a particular example of this third variation of this second aspect,and as illustrated in the exemplary scenario of FIG. 2, the visualindication of the second location 206 may comprise a preview 216 of theuser interface 120, such as a portion of the user interface 120 (e.g., atextual or pictorial description of the user interface 120; a subset ofvisual controls of the user interface 120 that indicate the type offunctionality exposed by the user interface 120; a non-interactiveversion of the user interface 120, such as a thumbnail or a partiallytransparent version of the user interface 120; and/or a presentation ofthe visual controls 118 of the user interface 120 without an isolatingbackground of the user interface 120). As the movement 220 of thepointer 116 from the first location 204 to the second location 206 isdetected, the preview 216 may be replaced with the user interface 120.As a further example, if the user interface 120 comprises a userinterface region extending to the edge 202 of the display 104, thepreview 216 may be positioned at the second location 206 such that itdoes not extend to the edge 202 of the display 104, thereby avoiding anocclusion of any other visual elements that are positioned near the edge202 of the display 104. As an additional option, the preview 216 mayonly be presented after detecting a “hovering” of the pointer 116 withinthe first location 204, measured as a hover duration 214 from thearrival of the pointer 116 at the first location 204. This option mayinform an inexperienced user 112 of the availability of the userinterface 120 and the completion of the associated gesture, while alsoenabling an experienced user 112 to invoke the user interface 120without having to “hover” the pointer 116 at the first location 204 orview the preview 216.

As a fourth variation of this second aspect, the detection of thegesture within the graphical computing environment 106 may be performedin many ways. As a first such example, the graphical computingenvironment 106 may endeavor to detect an initiation of the gesture by,while not in the user interface suggestion mode 210, continuouslycomparing the location of the pointer 106 with the first location 204 ofthe gesture; and, while in the user interface suggestion mode 210,continuously evaluating pointer input of the pointer 116 to detect amovement 220 to the second location 206. As a second such example, thegraphical computing environment 106 may not continuously monitor thepointer input of the pointer 116, but may include a trigger that, whenactivated, indicates input correlated with the gesture. For example, thegraphical computing environment 106 may be particularly configured todisplay a set of regions (e.g., windows 110), and may additionallyinclude a window 110 covering the area of the first location 204 andhaving no visual appearance. The graphical computing environment 106 mayalready be generally configured to detect the entry of a pointer 116into the areas of respective windows 110, and to notify such windows 110of such pointer input. The non-visible window 110 positioned at thefirst location 116 may interpret notification of the entry of thepointer 116 into the area of the window 110 as an initiation of thegesture. Moreover, the non-visible window 110 may send the pointer inputto any visual controls near (e.g., below) the window, in case suchpointer input is intended for such underlying visual controls and not aspart of the gesture.

As a fifth variation of this second aspect, if the user 112 does notcomplete an initiated gesture, the graphical computing environment 106may construe the input as an inadvertent initiation of the gesture and acancellation of the user interface suggestion mode 210. As a first suchexample, upon failing to detect the movement 220 of the pointer 116 tothe second location 206 within a gesture completion duration fromentering the user interface suggestion mode 210, the graphical computingenvironment 106 may cancel the user interface suggestion mode 210. As asecond such example, upon detecting input other than the movement 220 ofthe pointer 116 to the second location 206 while in the user interfacesuggestion mode 210 (e.g., movement of the pointer 116 away from thesecond location 206, an activation of the pointer 116 such as adepression of a mouse button, or input from another input device such asa keyboard), the graphical computing environment 106 may cancel the userinterface suggestion mode 210.

As a sixth variation of this second aspect, the details of such gesturesmay be adjusted for execution on a device 102 having two or moredisplays 104. In many such scenarios, the displays 104 may be logicallyarranged to reflect a single logical display. For example, a logicaldisplay may comprise a first logical display space and a second logicaldisplay space that are logically adjacent, such that moving the pointer116 past the right edge of the first logical display space causes thepointer 116 to emerge from the left edge of the second logical displayspace. The arrangement of the logical display spaces within the logicaldisplay may or may not be consistent with the physical arrangement ofsuch displays 104; e.g., while it may be advantageous to position afirst display 104 presenting the first logical display space adjacent toand to the left of a second display 104 presenting the second logicaldisplay space, the displays 104 may be located in other physicalarrangements, such as the first display 104 above, below, or to theright of the second display 104. In relation to the techniques presentedherein, in multi-display scenarios, an edge 202 of a logical displayspace may operate not as a hard boundary that resists overshooting ofthe pointer 116 past the edge 202, but rather as a portal to a secondlogical display space, such that even minimal overshooting of the firstlocation 204 causes the pointer 116 to move past the first location 204and onto a second logical display space. Accordingly, the edge 202 maybe less readily accessible (due to Fitts' Law), and the gesture may beadapted to improve the accessibility of the associated functionality.

As a first example of this sixth variation, the gesture may be adjustedin order to distinguish an initiation of a gesture from a transitionbetween the logical display spaces presented by different displays 104that happens to pass through the first location 204. For example, thegesture may be initiated only upon detecting a movement from within thelogical display space of a display 104 to a first location 204 withinthe same logical display space of the same display 104.

As a second example of this sixth variation, in order to adjust forinadvertently overshooting the first location 204 within a first logicaldisplay space of a first display 104 that is logically adjacent to asecond logical display space of a second display 104, the first location204 may be extended into the second logical display space of the seconddisplay 104. For example, the first location 204 may be adapted toinclude an edge region, comprising a first region portion near an edge202 of the first logical display space of the first display 104, and asecond region portion near an adjacent edge 204 of the second logicaldisplay space of the second display 104 having a second region portionedge that is adjacent to a first region portion edge of the first regionportion; and the detection of the pointer 116 within either regionportion of the edge region may be construed as the positioning of thepointer 116 at the first location 204. This detection, followed by themovement 220 of the pointer 116 to the second location 206, may causethe user interface 120 to appear in the first logical display space ofthe first display 106.

FIG. 5 presents an illustration of an exemplary scenario (presented as aseries of time points) featuring the implementation of the gesturespresented herein on a device 102 having two displays 104 configured toshare a logical display 502 comprising a first logical display space 504presented on a first display 104 and a second logical display space 504presented on a second display 104. At a first time point 500, the firstlocation 204 in which a gesture may be initiated is defined as an edgeregion comprising a first region portion 506 positioned near a firstedge 202 of the first display 104 and a second region portion 506positioned on a logically (and, coincidentally but not necessarily, alsophysically) adjacent edge 202 of the second display 104, and may becompleted by a movement 220 of the pointer 116 to a second location 206defined only in the first logical display space 504 on the first display104. At a second time point 508, when the pointer 116 is positionedwithin the second region portion 506 of the second display 104, thegraphical computing environment 106 may enter a user interfacesuggestion mode 210 (e.g., at a third time point 510 following ahovering of the pointer 116 in the second region portion 605, presentinga preview 216 of the user interface 120 at the second location 206 onthe first display 104). The completion of the gesture through a movement220 from either region portion 506 to the second location 206 may resultin the presentation of the user interface 120 on the first display 104.

Additional variations of this second variation of this sixth aspect maybe included to account for the inclusion of the second region portion inthe edge region. As a first such example, if the presentation of apreview 216 is preceded by a hovering of the pointer 116 in the firstregion portion, the hover duration may be different when the pointer 116is positioned in the second region portion on the second display 104(e.g., by defining a first hover duration for the first region portion,and a second hover duration for the second region portion that isdifferent from the first hover duration). As a second such example, ifthe device 102 is configured to terminate the user interface suggestion210 if the pointer 116 is not moved from the first region portion to thesecond location 206 within a gesture completion duration, this gesturecompletion duration may be extended if the pointer 116 is positionedwithin the second region portion (e.g., to account for the furtherlength of the movement 220 when initiated from a second display 106).Thus, the device 102 may define a first gesture completion duration whenthe gesture is initiated in the first region portion, and a secondgesture completion duration (which is greater than the first gesturecompletion duration) when initiated in the second region portion. As athird such example, the completion of this gesture may have variouseffects within the second logical display space of the second display104. For example, in addition to causing the device 104 to present thefirst user interface 120 at the second location 206 on the first display104, the gesture may cause the same user interface 120 to be presentedat a location on the second display 104; a different user interface 120to be presented on the second display 104; or no effect with respect tothe second display 104. Those of ordinary skill in the art may devisemany such variations of the gestures in accordance with the techniquespresented herein.

E. Exemplary Computing Environment

FIG. 6 and the following discussion provide a brief, general descriptionof a suitable computing environment to implement embodiments of one ormore of the provisions set forth herein. The operating environment ofFIG. 6 is only one example of a suitable operating environment and isnot intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality of the operating environment. Example computing devicesinclude, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers,hand-held or laptop devices, mobile devices (such as mobile phones,Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), media players, and the like),multiprocessor systems, consumer electronics, mini computers, mainframecomputers, distributed computing environments that include any of theabove systems or devices, and the like.

Although not required, embodiments are described in the general contextof “computer readable instructions” being executed by one or morecomputing devices. Computer readable instructions may be distributed viacomputer readable media (discussed below). Computer readableinstructions may be implemented as program modules, such as functions,objects, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data structures, andthe like, that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstractdata types. Typically, the functionality of the computer readableinstructions may be combined or distributed as desired in variousenvironments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system 600 comprising a computingdevice 602 configured to implement one or more embodiments providedherein. In one configuration, computing device 602 includes at least oneprocessing unit 606 and memory 608. Depending on the exact configurationand type of computing device, memory 608 may be volatile (such as RAM,for example), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc., forexample) or some combination of the two. This configuration isillustrated in FIG. 6 by dashed line 604.

In other embodiments, device 602 may include additional features and/orfunctionality. For example, device 602 may also include additionalstorage (e.g., removable and/or non-removable) including, but notlimited to, magnetic storage, optical storage, and the like. Suchadditional storage is illustrated in FIG. 6 by storage 610. In oneembodiment, computer readable instructions to implement one or moreembodiments provided herein may be in storage 610. Storage 610 may alsostore other computer readable instructions to implement an operatingsystem, an application program, and the like. Computer readableinstructions may be loaded in memory 608 for execution by processingunit 606, for example.

The term “computer readable media” as used herein includes computerstorage media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile,removable and non-removable media implemented in any method ortechnology for storage of information such as computer readableinstructions or other data. Memory 608 and storage 610 are examples ofcomputer storage media. Computer storage media includes, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) or other optical storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to storethe desired information and which can be accessed by device 602. Anysuch computer storage media may be part of device 602.

Device 602 may also include communication connection(s) 616 that allowsdevice 602 to communicate with other devices. Communicationconnection(s) 616 may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a NetworkInterface Card (NIC), an integrated network interface, a radio frequencytransmitter/receiver, an infrared port, a USB connection, or otherinterfaces for connecting computing device 602 to other computingdevices. Communication connection(s) 616 may include a wired connectionor a wireless connection. Communication connection(s) 616 may transmitand/or receive communication media.

The term “computer readable media” may include communication media.Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions orother data in a “modulated data signal” such as a carrier wave or othertransport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. Theterm “modulated data signal” may include a signal that has one or moreof its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encodeinformation in the signal.

Device 602 may include input device(s) 614 such as keyboard, mouse, pen,voice input device, touch input device, infrared cameras, video inputdevices, and/or any other input device. Output device(s) 612 such as oneor more displays, speakers, printers, and/or any other output device mayalso be included in device 602. Input device(s) 614 and output device(s)612 may be connected to device 602 via a wired connection, wirelessconnection, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, an inputdevice or an output device from another computing device may be used asinput device(s) 614 or output device(s) 612 for computing device 602.

Components of computing device 602 may be connected by variousinterconnects, such as a bus. Such interconnects may include aPeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), such as PCI Express, aUniversal Serial Bus (USB), firewire (IEEE 1394), an optical busstructure, and the like. In another embodiment, components of computingdevice 602 may be interconnected by a network. For example, memory 608may be comprised of multiple physical memory units located in differentphysical locations interconnected by a network.

Those skilled in the art will realize that storage devices utilized tostore computer readable instructions may be distributed across anetwork. For example, a computing device 620 accessible via network 618may store computer readable instructions to implement one or moreembodiments provided herein. Computing device 602 may access computingdevice 620 and download a part or all of the computer readableinstructions for execution. Alternatively, computing device 602 maydownload pieces of the computer readable instructions, as needed, orsome instructions may be executed at computing device 602 and some atcomputing device 620.

F. Usage of Terms

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system”,“interface”, and the like are generally intended to refer to acomputer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware andsoftware, software, or software in execution. For example, a componentmay be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, aprocessor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program,and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application runningon a controller and the controller can be a component. One or morecomponents may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and acomponent may be localized on one computer and/or distributed betweentwo or more computers.

Furthermore, the claimed subject matter may be implemented as a method,apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/orengineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or anycombination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosedsubject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. Of course, those skilled inthe art will recognize many modifications may be made to thisconfiguration without departing from the scope or spirit of the claimedsubject matter.

Various operations of embodiments are provided herein. In oneembodiment, one or more of the operations described may constitutecomputer readable instructions stored on one or more computer readablemedia, which if executed by a computing device, will cause the computingdevice to perform the operations described. The order in which some orall of the operations are described should not be construed as to implythat these operations are necessarily order dependent. Alternativeordering will be appreciated by one skilled in the art having thebenefit of this description. Further, it will be understood that not alloperations are necessarily present in each embodiment provided herein.

Moreover, the word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as anexample, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design describedherein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as advantageousover other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary isintended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in thisapplication, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” ratherthan an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clearfrom context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the naturalinclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or Xemploys both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any ofthe foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as usedin this application and the appended claims may generally be construedto mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from contextto be directed to a singular form.

Also, although the disclosure has been shown and described with respectto one or more implementations, equivalent alterations and modificationswill occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading andunderstanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. Thedisclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and islimited only by the scope of the following claims. In particular regardto the various functions performed by the above described components(e.g., elements, resources, etc.), the terms used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component which performs the specified function of the describedcomponent (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though notstructurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs thefunction in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of thedisclosure. In addition, while a particular feature of the disclosuremay have been disclosed with respect to only one of severalimplementations, such feature may be combined with one or more otherfeatures of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageousfor any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent thatthe terms “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof areused in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms areintended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of presenting a user interface in agraphical user environment on a device defining a first thresholddistance and a second threshold distance that is greater than the firstthreshold distance and having a processor, a display, and a pointingdevice associated with a pointer, the method comprising: executing onthe processor instructions configured to: upon detecting a positioningof the pointer at a first location within the first threshold distanceof an edge of the display: enter a user interface suggestion mode; andat a second location that is within the second threshold distance of thefirst location and that is not within the first threshold distance ofthe first location, present a preview of a user interface that isavailable at the second location; and upon detecting, while in the userinterface suggestion mode, a movement of the pointer from the firstlocation to the second location and absent user interaction with thepreview of the user interface, present the user interface at the secondlocation.
 2. The method of claim 1: the first location comprising alocation within the first threshold distance of a corner of the displayadjoining two selected edges of the display; and the second locationcomprising a midpoint of a selected edge.
 3. The method of claim 1, theinstructions further configured to refrain from presenting a visualindicator of the user interface at the first location.
 4. The method ofclaim 1: the instructions further configured to position a non-visibledetection region at the first location; and detecting the positioningcomprising: detecting a movement of the pointer into the non-visibledetection region.
 5. The method of claim 1: the user interfacecomprising a user interface region extending to the edge of the display;and the preview comprising a portion of the user interface region andnot extending to the edge of the display.
 6. The method of claim 1, theinstructions further configured to present the preview upon detecting ahovering, for a hover duration, of the pointer at the first location. 7.The method of claim 1, the instructions further configured to, uponfailing to detect the movement of the pointer to the second locationwithin a gesture completion duration from entering the user interfacesuggestion mode: remove the preview, and cancel the user interfacesuggestion mode.
 8. The method of claim 1, the instructions furtherconfigured to, upon detecting input other than the movement of thepointer to the second location while in the user interface suggestionmode: remove the preview, and cancel the user interface suggestion mode.9. The method of claim 1: the computing environment presenting at leastone visual control within a threshold distance of the first location;and the instructions configured to, upon canceling the user interfacesuggestion mode, send the input to a visual control within the thresholddistance of the first location.
 10. The method of claim 1, the computingenvironment presenting a logical display comprising at least two logicaldisplay spaces presented by a display of the device.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, detecting the positioning of the pointer at a first locationwithin a threshold distance of an edge of a display comprising:detecting a movement of the pointer from within the logical displayspace of a display to the first location within the threshold distanceof an edge of the logical display space of the display.
 12. The methodof claim 10: a first edge of a first logical display space presented bya first display positioned, within the logical display, adjacent to asecond edge of a second logical display space presented by a seconddisplay; and detecting the positioning of the pointer at a firstlocation within a threshold distance of the first edge comprising:detecting the positioning of the pointer within an edge regioncomprising: a first region portion within a threshold distance of thefirst edge of the first logical display space; and a second regionportion within a threshold distance of the second edge of the secondlogical display space having a second region portion edge that isadjacent to a first region portion edge of the first region portion. 13.The method of claim 12, the instructions further configured to: upondetecting a hovering, for a first hover duration, of the pointer in thefirst region portion, present a preview of the user interface at thesecond location; and upon detecting a hovering, for a second hoverduration that is different from the first hover duration, of the pointerin the second region portion, present the preview of the user interfaceat the second location.
 14. The method of claim 12, the instructionsfurther configured to: upon failing to detect, while the pointer is inthe first region portion, the movement of the pointer to the userinterface within a first gesture completion duration from entering theuser interface suggestion mode, cancel the user interface suggestionmode; and upon failing to detect, while the pointer is in the secondregion portion, the movement of the pointer to the user interface withina second gesture completion duration from entering the user interfacesuggestion mode, the second gesture completion duration longer than thefirst gesture completion duration, cancel the user interface suggestionmode.
 15. The method of claim 12, the instructions further configuredto, upon detecting the positioning of the pointer within the edgeregion: present a first user interface at a first second location withinthe first logical display space; and present a second user interface asecond location within the second logical display space.
 16. The methodof claim 1: the pointer associated with a pointing input mode selectedfrom a pointing input mode set comprising: an absolute pointing inputmode, and a relative pointing input mode; and entering the userinterface suggestion mode comprising: upon detecting a positioning ofthe pointer at a first location within a threshold distance of an edgeof the display while the pointer is associated with a relative pointinginput mode, enter the user interface suggestion mode.
 17. The method ofclaim 16, the instructions further configured to, upon detecting, whilethe pointer is associated with an absolute pointing input mode, input ata position of the pointing device corresponding to the first location,present the user interface on the display.
 18. A device that presents auser interface in a graphical user environment on a device defining afirst threshold distance and a second threshold distance that is greaterthan the first threshold distance, the device comprising: a processor, adisplay, a pointing device associated with a pointer, and a memorystoring instructions that, when executed by the processor, provide asystem comprising: a user interface suggester comprising instructionsstored in the memory that, when executed on the processor, cause thedevice to, upon detecting a positioning of the pointer at a firstlocation within the first threshold distance of an edge of the display:enter a user interface suggestion mode; and at a second location that iswithin the second threshold distance of the first location and that isnot within the first threshold distance of the first location, present apreview of a user interface that is available at the second location;and a user interface presenter comprising instructions stored in thememory that, when executed on the processor, cause the device to, upondetecting, while in the user interface suggestion mode, a movement ofthe pointer from the first location to the second location and absentuser interaction with the preview of the user interface, present theuser interface at the second location.
 19. The method of claim 10, wherepresenting the user interface at the second location further comprises:replacing the preview at the second location with the user interface.20. A method of presenting a user interface in a graphical userenvironment on a device defining a first threshold distance and a secondthreshold distance that is greater than the first threshold distance andhaving a processor, a display, and a pointing device associated with apointer, the method comprising: executing on the processor instructionsconfigured to: upon detecting a positioning of a pointer within thegraphical user environment at a first location within the firstthreshold distance of an edge of the display: record a start time of auser interface suggestion mode, and at a second location that is withinthe second threshold distance of the first location and that is notwithin the first threshold distance of the first location, present apreview of a user interface that is available at the second location;and upon detecting, within a time limit measured from the start time, amovement of the pointer from the first location to the second locationand absent user interaction with the preview of the user interface,present the user interface at the second location; and upon the timelimit from the start time elapsing without a movement of the pointer tothe second location, exit the user interface suggestion mode.